Burger Boys is a drive-thru only restaurant that occupies the former Cuppy's Coffee location at 2400 Chapman Highway.

The restaurant opened on Thursday. It's a product of Bryant falling in love with the food industry after he worked at Wendy's as a teenager.

"I started at 15 years old working for Wendy's. I would work for Wendy's for 13 years, and I started on fries and went all the way up to franchise trainer," Bryant said. "Throughout the years, I was a franchise trainer in New York for Wendy's, and...just early on when I decided to work for Wendy's, I started to fall in love with it, and I just decided one day just looking at their operations and things to that degree, I wanted to open up my own company."

Burger Boys' menu

Burger Boys' menu features several varieties of burgers named after Bryant's sons.

"I named all the burgers after my boys," said Bryant. "That's why we're the Burger Boys."

The burgers include the Kobe, Lil Dom, Lil Dre, Dante, Big Dom and Vol burger. All of them are half-pound burgers except for the Big Dom, which is a pound, according to Bryant.

Burger Boys' menu also has chicken livers and gizzards by the pint or quart, chicken wings and sandwiches, perch and catfish sandwiches, white rice, mashed potatoes, green beans, gravy, cheesecake and sweet potato pie, according to a post on its Facebook page.

'A year in the making'

Bryant moved to Knoxville three years ago and began preparing Burger Boys to open more than a year ago.

"It's been a year in the making," he said. "I've just had a lot of ups and downs with city requirements they wanted to be done after I purchased the place, and it's taken me every bit of 13 to 14 months to get everything done."

Bryant had some financial trouble near the end of getting Burger Boys ready to open. He said Bobby Dalton, his business partner, stepped in and helped him.

Dalton works at Flowers Bakery and runs a bread route. That's where he ran into Bryant.

"I actually own a bread route, and I actually stopped in here to sell him buns because he's on my route, and we got to talking, and he was needing more money to get it open, so that's how I became a partner with him," said Dalton.

Bryant said Burger Boys' business has been amazing so far.

"The response has been overwhelming...the sign has been up for about six months, so people have been anticipating, been waiting and watching," said Bryant.